Come To Think of It...Cubs Lead National League in On-Base Percentage

Call it the Fukudome Effect.

The Cubs lead the National League with a .366 on-base percentage. That's right, our Chicago Cubs actually lead the league in OBP.

What's next, a retractable roof overhead at Wrigley Field? No more day games? Ivy replaced by electronic advertising?

No, don't fret, Cubs fans, it's nothing that drastic. But it is a move forward in the right direction.

Perhaps as no coincidence, the Cubs are also in first place in the NL Central division.

I have long been on Cubs GM Jim Hendry to start preaching the value of OBP throughout the Cubs minor league system and to start acquiring major league players who get on base at a healthy clip. More and more, so-called baseball experts and sabermetricians are espousing its value, something the stone age Cubs are just hopefully starting to recognize.

The first clue was Hendry's chase after Kosuke Fukudome, known to be a high OBP player in Japan. And thus far, he has not disappointed in that category, leading the team with a .442 OBP and having seen the most pitches per plate appearance in the league (4.58). .

Lou Piniella seems to understand the value of getting on base as well.  Anyone remember Dusty Baker's 'hey dude, just swing the bat' mentality? Well, fortunately, that's gone the way of the doubleheader.

To measure a player's offensive value, OBP is key for several reasons.  

First, it is a direct measure of the player himself.  That is, no one forces him to walk (unless he's given a free pass), so a player who walks a lot tends to do it on his own.

Second, once on base, you can play solid fundamental baseball to get the runner home with just one hit or sometimes even without a hit. Even better if the player is fast and can steal a base along the way. Walk, steal second, move the runner over to third by hitting to the right side, then bring him home with a sac fly.  Guess what, you've scored a run without a hit. Golly gee, what will they think of next?

The RBI is not a valid measure of a player's worth because it mainly measures the ability of the top order men to get on base.  No one on base, no one to drive home, right?

And pure batting average, while nice, isn't the end all, be all.  If you hit .300 but don't walk, someone who hits .270 with a selective eye at the plate will get on base more frequently and thus be more valuable to your ability to score runs.

It ain't rocket science, friends.

But it's hardly been the trademark of the Chicago Cubs over the years, which is why it's so good to see now. Why work harder to score runs than you need to? Some call it luck, I say you make your own luck.

Solid pitching and good defense, along with the occasional home run ball are also critical elements to a winning team. There's no denying that. But in the meantime, getting on base is a start.  Come to think of it, the last time the Cubs led the league in OBP was 1945. Now that's something to think about, isn't it?